Momaw

In the real world reflex sights are all about how fast you can line up the target. Your aiming point is large, bright, and appears to be infinitely distant so that you don't have to focus your eyes between the sight at the end of your arm and the target at (presumably) some much further distance as you bring the sight up. The game doesn't really model these advantages to a real world degree. I don't like the holo sight in Arma2 at *all* for the reasons noted above; occludes too much of the target and surrounds, and its zero point is set way too ambitiously for what is intended to be a short range sight. Meh.

Apparently I have 1.18. I'll get the latest. You're averaging a version a day it seems :P

There's a pile of crates on the edge of the village just before you get to the road checkpoint. A whole bunch of Russian equipment there, including Igla tubes and missiles. Igla did the trick for me :)

Damn that's a lot of badguys. I managed to wade through this mission with 8 casualties. :( Somehow it seems like the AI gets really dumb in the village and they're getting killed left and right. All around fun though, very hectic! I think this mission was actually the first time in Arma2 that I got to use a SAM, on that pesky KA-52.

Interesting thing. May I strongly suggest though, that you give some of the squad AT weapons at the start? One, it's not intuitively obvious that the truck has SMAW tubes for you to use, and two, the game tells you that you're probably going to need AT capability so having to tell your guys to pick the weapons up manually is just tedious. And I also couldn't exit the mission, the helo refused to lift off. In the name of experimentation I tried shooting the pilot after waiting for a few minutes, but you didn't allow the player to fly the thing. This bug desperately needs to be fixed, since it can be a very long mission that is likely to get interrupted by save/load at some point.

My biggest confusion about high-command mode is how to create new groups. I mean if I start out with two squads of motorized inf, that's great and all, but how do I make more of them? The only thing I've found that I can do is buy more at the barracks thing, but then they're part of MY squad, and I instantly run out of space to buy more troops. How do I say "You guys here, go away and do something. This guy here is your squad lead, stop bugging me."

BTR-90! It's pretty agile over any terrain, it has a weapon for all types of social events, and you can bring a bunch of your friends with you.

This isn't helped by the fact that the AI's detection ability in general is supernatural. So it's calling a target to the left, through a boulder, three trees, and a modest sized house. Even if you're looking in the correct direction, it may be impossible to get line of sight. (sometimes this is justified since your squad spreads out under fire, and the person who called the target may have LOS but you don't). In general I think "left" and "right" should be based on the squad leader's facing. NOT last movement. If you're hanging out behind a wall and the leader shuffles sideways a little to scan the surrounding through a hole, then he's still facing the same way and his left is still the squad's left. Directions like left and right though should only be used when the squad is close together and it is clear to everybody which way is "front". When people are spread out over a fifty meter circle and you may not even be able to see the leader at the moment, "front" is... vague. Compass directions should be used in such cases. North is north no matter which way you're facing. :P Left and right can also be used in vehicles, where even if people are not all facing the same way, "front" is obviously the front of the vehicle. This could additionally be helped by squad members pointing at targets when they call them, or when approached, or even add a radio request. So even if you're not the squad leader but only a member, when one of your mates calls the target you can turn to look at them and they'll be pointing at whatever they see. If you miss the initial indication, just move close to them and they'll point again. This is basically how a human would communicate information here and the way most intuitive to... humans. And as the leader you could ask that they point again, possibly under the 2:Target menu. "Indicate last target"? Hmm.

I have to agree that grass helps the AI not *detect* you, in that you can crawl around quietly and the AI will be totally unaware. However, the AI quite obviously knows exactly where you are the instant you fire a (non-suppressed) shot. I have been killed numerous times by the AI shooting at me through brush and tall grass as I was trying to use a sniper rifle. The sound-based detection is much too good and accurate. As such, suppressed weapons are really the only way to get the AI to "fight fair": they know they're being shot at, and move to take cover, but they don't instantly and magically zero in on you. Again: grass blocks line of sight, but once the AI "knows" where you are, line of sight is irrelevant.

Yeah, you CAN get the GPS to pop up in normal view. I prefer to use the momentary-on mode though. You can find a line to bind this stuff in the control config (Waaaaaaaay down near the bottom)

Just FYI if you didn't know, the DMR package is a dolled-up M14 (nice optics, bipod, better barrel, some other changes) which in turn is descended from the M1 Garand :D It's a nice rifle, but really Arma2 gives it too much credit accuracy-wise. It is NOT intended to be a sniper platform. You give it to the guy who can pull off shots in 500-meter world when you happen across such a situation, not the guy you need to perform single-shot missions at 1000 meters. (Though there are other M14 variants which exceed the DMR in precision)

Well, boarding the BTR-90 does cause a bunch of troops to hop in and we drive into the field. Only I have NO objective text. Seriously, there's just a column of check boxes and then a blank area where the text ought to be. :(

I usually don't carry around a tube, it's silly to be carrying around a tube plus a full size rifle (why so few SMGs and no machine pistols?). I really like the AK-107 + GL for my rifle personally. The sight is quick to line up and the recoil deadening mechanism makes for extremely accurate and fast follow ups. Plus who doesn't like grenade launchers. :D 5 or 6 rifle mags, 2 smoke grenades (am I the only one who uses smoke?) and whatever else looks like it wants to come. Plus the sidearm de jour of course, since there's no reason not to, though I carry minimal pistol rounds in favor of GL food. If there's a lot of open field stuff expected though, DMR all the way!

Uh... Something really weird is going on. I downloaded this mission and put the .pbo file in my arma2\missions\ directory. I start the mission and I'm sitting near a campfire alone (why alone?). I move down the hill and there's a group of allies who, after a few minutes, move over near the BTR-90 and stand in formation. I see the "squad leader" symbol on the BTR like we're supposed to be formating with it. And then... we wait. Nothing happens. Nobody moves. I have no mission objectives. I restarted the mission and the same thing happened. Restarted again. THIS time, the camp came under heavy attack by a number of enemies including missile troops, and I got killed by an explosion. ... I have no idea what's supposed to be going on. :(

"How to use rifles with grenade launchers?" << They work the same as rifles without grenade launchers :D I'm not very good with 40mm grenades either, but they ARE handy. They go further and faster than you can throw, they explode on impact giving no chance for evasion, and they take up pistol-mag type inventory slots instead of far more useful rifle-mag slots.

Even in the real world, treads are known to shoot at rotors. Anything that can elevate its guns far enough really has little to lose by taking a shot at opposing helicopters. They're low and slow compared to fixed wing craft so you don't need fancy predictive systems or anything, and you can afford to spend a lot of hundred-dollar shells to potshot a million-dollar flyer. :)

You do know that the Refleks is a command guided laser-riding missile, yes? Keep the gun sight pointed where you want the missile to hit until it hits.

While I don't have any real objection to the way the character moves in Arma2 (it's quite realistic and suits the pacing and intent of the game), I find the lighting effects extremely distracting and sometimes nearly unplayable. Like it gets to be afternoon, and everything turns into shades of black and white from the massive over-exposure. It makes it hard to even find the enemy, which is doubly frustrating since the AI doesn't suffer from the same effect and I've died over and over to taking accurate fire out of the middle of a wall of black. I wouldn't take the feature out totally, it's very immersive when it works properly. The extremes are just... too extreme.

When you are in command of several squad mates, some in vehicles and some not, or even spread across multiple vehicles, it can be difficult to keep straight who is where. My suggestion is that when squadmates mount multi-position vehicles (technicals, APCs, tanks, etc) their portraits are rearranged to be adjacent to eachother, and a bracket be drawn around them to indicate that they are traveling together.

Select the team member, select "Gear" from the Action menu while near a bunker? I'm not sure that works. If it doesn't, you can also tell them to pick up alternate weaponry from the Action menu.

I'd just like to offer that my system is an E8400 processor (Core2 duo, 3ghz), running at stock speed, with 4gbytes of system memory and a Geforce 9600. I am using 64 bit Vista. The game runs just fine at 1440x900 using the default video settings. Though I disabled the post process effects because I think the game looks better without. :)

How to fix this mission: 1.) Chain the NAPA arrival into the end of the cutscene, so that it's impossible to miss. The first time I played this mission, my squad mates reported "Unknown men in front of us". I was in full escape-and-evade mode at that point, so I got back in the truck and tore off down the hill through the woods without knowing you had to talk to them. 2.) Cancel the "Get to rally point" objective after talking to NAPA. Leaving it as a possible objective only inspires false hope. Instead, if you helped the priest (against orders!) then you go with them and if you turned the priest's cache in, then you get a new waypoint to meet their friends and have to get there on your. Basically these are the two biggest problems. You don't know what's going on unless you talk to the NAPA guys and it's not guaranteed that the player will, plus, the stated mission objective is completely impossible without giving any indication of being impossible.

I just tried running this mission. What a gyp. :( I got as far as just north of Pusta by being cautious and staying off the roads, but now I can't get any further because the woods is crawling with developers carrying BFGs. I'd also like to point out that the NAPA guys at Manhattan say the Russians have occupied the north. I don't consider Pusta to be "the north", in fact it's like 1.5km from being "in the water". This mission is so incredibly fubar. It pretends to be a time-limited escape/evade scenario, when in reality it's... Actually I have no idea what it really is since I haven't figured out what the developers planned for me to do. Annoyed.

Thanks guys, that does the trick. </topic>

I just got the game a few days ago. I've been playing "Manhattan", which is apparently Satan as far as stability. I finally completed the mission with all objectives (except for the explosive situation you can't do anything about; and I had to shoot the pilots) marked in green. I found the main camp, I destroyed it, and identified the leader. BUT! Nothing is happening now. I waited around a few minutes, thinking maybe Battlemage was just too busy with something else to tell me what to do at the moment. No radio call. I drove all the way back to FB MAN but the captain is missing and nobody seems to know where he is (!?!). Checked my radio, no options available of any kind (Starforce 21 was shot down earlier). So. Screw it. It's time to cheat. And yes, I already did a forum search. All I can find is references to "use the end mission cheat", but without any reference to what that actually is. Please, somebody help this marine come home. :(